A Soup of Sues: An Unorthodox Pretty Cure Story
by MadCow77
Summary: A teenage fan, a lone brooding warrior, a long-lost sister, a distant cousin, and a dark mysterious figure. What do they have in common? And why are they meddling in the Pretty Cure universe? Follow Ken's journey as he tries to unravel the mystery behind the Mary Sues. But things are not what they seem, as something sinister lurks between the boundaries of reality and fiction.
1. Encounters of the Sue Kind

**Preface**

A Soup of Sues is the result of my participation in NaNoWriMo 2014 and, as the title implies, contains Mary Sues. Before I begin, I would like to say two things:

Firstly, is my assumption that you, the reader, have at least a passing familiarity with the term "Mary Sue." If you don't know what a Sue is, I would recommend giving at least a cursory glance at the definition online, which you can easily find from a search engine, or on a site like TV Tropes. You may also find the term being discussed on forums here (e.g. in the Writers Anonymous forum).

The second point pertains to why I am even writing about Mary Sues. Parodies of them have been done to death already. There are even some very good stories that have taken a deconstructionist approach to them, on this site even. I wanted to try something completely out of left field as a personal writing challenge, so my task would be to take the concept of Mary Sues at face value and run with them with a totally straight face, and see how far I could go without resorting to parodies and deconstructions. It's a very different angle or take into the whole Mary Sue business, and I thought that it might be an interesting experience to explore.

So for better or for worse, and without further ado, let us begin.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Pretty Cure. This work of fiction is purely for entertainment purposes only and not for profit. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or OC Precures of other fanfictions, is purely coincidental.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 1: Encounters of the Sue Kind<span>**

"Are you all right?"

I slowly opened my eyes to the sound of the voice. My vision was a blur and my head throbbed with the pangs of a headache, no doubt from whatever activity that brought about my present situation. I tried to remember what I did last night, only to have the headaches intensify, forcing me to temporarily abandon any further mental exercise and divert my cognitive attention elsewhere.

"Are you all right?" the voice asked again, followed by a gentle shake on my left arm. It was a girl. I would have liked to imagine that it was my annoying little sister, waking me up for school or some other irritating matter while I chose the comfort of my warm, soft bed over the somewhat violent methods that she would resort to next. But alas, that wasn't her voice. Did I have too much to drink last night and ended up in a most troublesome situation the following morning? _Ugh_… there's that headache again. I quickly abandoned thoughts of last night.

One thing was certain – I wasn't at home and in my own comfortable bed. I wasn't even resting on a bed or anything soft for that matter. In fact it felt like the familiar sensation of multiple sharp but itchy pricks from lying down on a bed of grass. My hands reached out and touched the surface of my so-called bed. It was indeed grass.

I sprang up into a sitting position, narrowly colliding with one of the girls kneeling beside me. It was by some miracle or luck that she snapped back in time. My vision still hadn't fully returned to me, but I could discern that there were two of them. Not being able to clearly see their facial features, their most immediately identifiable trait was their hair.

The girl closest to me had shoulder-length red, or could it perhaps be pink or maroon, hair. I couldn't really tell the difference right now. Not that it mattered, because it was the most striking trait that my visual cortex could process and detail at the moment. Her companion was kneeling behind her, peering over her shoulder like a timid little sister in the presence of strangers. She had waist-length blue, cyan or marine, hair. They both looked roughly the same age as me, maybe even a little younger. The one in blue was cradling what looked like a white stuffed toy in her arms.

Now usually hair colour is not the first thing that one would notice and identify, but who goes around in bright and colourful hair in public? Cosplayers were the first thing that came to mind. I am in Tokyo, after all. On cue, the headache makes itself known again. When did I remember myself being in Tokyo? What was I doing in Tokyo? In any case, I unconsciously brought my hand up to my temple as the pain in my head intensified.

"Are you hurt?" the redhead asked, with a hint of curiosity and concern in her tone of voice.

"Yeah…" The pain quickly subsided the moment I ceased allocating memory-related tasks to my mental faculties. "Just a little bit of headache."

I looked around, my vision finally clearing to a point where I can actually make out shapes and patterns to a very reasonable level of detail. None of my surroundings particularly clicked in my mind, but this was certainly _not_ Tokyo at all.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We found you lying unconscious here. Do you remember how you got here?"

"No," I promptly answered. I didn't want to even try and think about that any further. But I did want to know what happened, and how I even got here in the first place – wherever this place is. "Where am I?"

"You're in the park."

"Yeah. I mean, _where_ am I?"

"Oh." The redhead lifted her index finger and placed it on her lip while considering my question. "You're in the town of Pikarigaoka."

"Pikarigaoka…" A sudden wave of familiarity washed over me. Or was it more like déjà vu? It didn't matter, but I took stock of my surroundings again just to be sure. Indeed, I began noticing details that my mind had simply overlooked the first time around. There was the familiar-looking bridge over the familiar river, and the familiar cityscape that was broken up by the occasional and irregular pattern of oversized fungi and sweets.

Now for the uninitiated, the town of Pikarigaoka exists in the _fictional_ world of Happiness Charge Pretty Cure, where magical girls all over the globe known as Pretty Cure, which are more commonly pronounced Precure, fight off an invasion from another dimension, the Phantom Empire. A typical attack involves one of their generals appearing in a population centre, magically trapping a random citizen in a sarcophagus-like mirror and then bringing forth a giant monster known as a Saiark to corrupt the landscape. Those strange-looking patterns of fungi and sweets around the city are signs of Saiark corruption.

Of course, the whole premise itself is rather silly, but Pretty Cure falls within the realm of entertainment for young girls. That aside, the realization that I've been dropped into such a fictional world itself was an almost assuredly absurd notion, but since I couldn't deny or refute any of the elements that stood before my eyes, I had to accept the reality of the situation.

"Ken."

"Huh?" The redhead tilted her head slightly, giving off a somewhat perplexed expression.

"Sorry. I mean my name is Ken."

"I'm Aino Megumi. And this is my friend, Shirayuki Hime," she said, gesturing to the bluenette behind her.

Of course! It was so obvious who these two were. Being dropped into a fictional world only to immediately meet two main characters from that world? It could not get any more clichéd than that. "The both of you are Precures?"

The girls snapped back, their eyes wide open as they put their hands to their open mouths in surprise. There was also a slight hint of movement from Hime's plush toy. That was most definitely Ribbon, Hime's fairy partner. Fairies and spirits are common entities in Pretty Cure, usually having small plush toy-like appearances and often forming lifelong bonds of friendship with their respective partners. In any case, theirs was a reasonable reaction; having a total stranger know your secret identity is certainly a shocking revelation, and I needed to take advantage of this if I am to integrate myself and determine is happening.

"How do you know about us?" Megumi asked. Hime simply withdrew further behind Megumi, occasionally throwing me odd glances which I couldn't clearly identify as curiosity or suspicion. I don't remember if she was always this shy; in any case, I wasn't certain how far I was in the canon timeline to make proper judgements like that.

"I'm from another world." I paused to give some careful thought about where I was going with this opening line. "It's like Shirayuki-san situation where she's from the Blue Sky Kingdom, but mine's a _different_ world. I'm not really sure about the details myself, but I was hoping to get some answers or at the very least, some clues, if I could be allowed to talk to Blue-sama?"

This was the part where I hoped that name-dropping Blue, an individual who is powerful enough to seed the world with Precures and acts as their guide and mentor, would give me at least a tiny fraction of credibility which could in turn persuade these two to help arrange an audience with him.

"So you're in some kind of trouble and need Blue-sama to help sort things out for you." Megumi beamed with a wide smile. "Of course we'll help!"

"You will?" Both Hime and I voiced out at the same time. I couldn't believe that it was so simple. On Hime's reaction, I suspected that she had some reservations about me. I couldn't blame her; she had a shy personality and didn't easily make friends or get close to people whereas Megumi was the kind of happy-go-lucky and always-charging-forward-cheerfully type.

Megumi nodded. "It wouldn't be true happiness if I didn't try to at least help someone in need!"

"Thanks. I appreciate it," I said, her happiness-charged attitude eliciting a smile from me.

* * *

><p>We walked through the town of Pikarigaoka, the three of us, while I took in the scenery. Seeing the town on a television screen was one thing, but to experience the place itself first hand is another. You could sense the sheer happiness of the place, as if that emotion was a real and tangible thing in this world. It's not something that could be easily put down into words; subjective and perceptual feelings like this are never easy to explain without experiencing it first-hand.<p>

We walked past several landmarks that I had a passing familiarity with. There was the karate dojo where Megumi's childhood friend trained, the array of shop houses where Megumi often visits for marketing supplies, and the famous lunch shop, Omori Gohan. Seeing this place reminded me that I needed to establish where I was in the canon timeline. "So… how many Precures are there in your team now?"

Hime has yet to open up to me, so she continued to flinch and hide behind Megumi, leaving the redhead to answer my question. "Four," she said, thinking to herself for a moment before continuing. "Though the fourth was a very recent addition."

"Cure Honey and Cure Fortune?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah!"

The seemed rather odd. By this time, Hime should have had more exposure to strangers and made friends already, but she still seemed to be quite the timid one. Perhaps I was just a special case. After all, it is not an everyday occurrence where some stranger shows up on your turf proclaiming to know your secret identity and ask to speak to your leader. Am I sounding like some kind of alien invader from another dimension now? If Megumi or Hime were to be slightly more genre-savvy, I would probably have received a smack in the head for using such clichéd methods by now.

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of panic. From the opposite direction, a crowd was running past, clearly afraid of what was ahead of us. The atmosphere itself seemed to have changed too. I no longer felt as much happiness as I did from the town centre earlier; terrible feelings seemed to be washing over, and I could almost sense where this feeling was coming from.

"Quickly find somewhere safe to hide!" Megumi said before sprinting off together with Hime and Ribbon.

Without hesitating, I quickly took off after them both.

It didn't take long for the two girls to notice me running after them. Without breaking her stride Megumi turned her head back slightly to address me. "What do you think you're doing, Ken?"

"You told me to find somewhere safe," I answered, feeling a little bit surprised at the pace that the girls were going and that I could actually keep up with them without losing stride. "When the Phantom Empire attacks, the safest place to be is by the side of any one of you girls."

That was nothing but a blatant paraphrase from another show. It was a lame response, but one that was necessary. I couldn't afford to let those two out of my sight, not when I was still in unfamiliar territory, so my best strategy was to stick to them at all times regardless of the danger.

"When the fight starts, be careful and stay behind cover!"

"Roger that!"

* * *

><p>We soon reached the epicentre of the invasion. A large, black humanoid towered over the surrounding shops wielding an appropriately-sized hammer in one hand and a cordless power drill in another. It wore a pair of red sunglasses, a green scarf and denim overalls. This was a Saiark.<p>

The colour of a Saiark's scarf identifies who summoned it. The green scarf marks it as a Saiark of Namakelder, a lazy slacker of a general who prefers loafing around than actual fighting. I am amazed that he can operate as a legitimate threat with such a lax attitude. Speaking of the devil, Namakelder himself was standing atop the flat rooftops behind the Saiark, dressed in his usual green coat and leaning on a walking cane. A pair of antenna jutted out of his top hat, though I have to wonder if it was just for show or did he really exhibit insect-like attributes.

"So you've come, Precures." Namakelder casually twirled his cane around his finger and smiled confidently at the two girls. "It's really such a bother to have you show up."

While the girls traded threats and taunts with the Phantom Empire general, I searched for a place to hide and take stock of the situation. Standing in the presence of a real Saiark was a completely different experience compared to just seeing one onscreen. For one, while still looking hugely ridiculous, I could sense its terrible presence that drowned out all feelings of happiness within the surrounding area. It felt suffocating. There was also the tiny little fact that this thing could probably and easily squash a person like a bug.

Besides Namakelder and the Saiark, there should also be other Choiarks around. These are the common foot soldiers, or _mooks_ as I prefer to call them, of the Phantom Empire. Often, hordes of them accompany a general during the invasion. For the moment I did not catch sight of any, but if my gut feeling is to be believed, they would show up sooner or later. In any case, I found myself eagerly awaiting the next event to unfold – the transformation of Megumi and Hime into their Pretty Cure forms.

I had set myself up for a disappointment. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't have been surprised that their transformation sequence didn't take a whole minute to complete while they danced around in magical light while their clothes changed from within glowing hearts and ribbons. This may be a genre convention in magical girl shows, but obviously it wouldn't really make sense to have something as ridiculous as that play out during an actual battle. So instead, what I got was Megumi and Hime being briefly engulfed in a bright glow, and that was it. They have transformed and were ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

On cue, a legion of black-dressed Choiarks appeared, literally crawling out of the woodwork and spreading around the two Precures. Megumi and Hime, as Cure Lovely and Cure Princess respectively ducked, weaved and punch at speeds I would never have believed possible. They were truly indeed magical girls, their physical capabilities magnified by their Pretty Cure powers beyond the limits of what one could consider human.

As they fought the sea of Choiarks around them, the Saiark moved in to engage. Without any concern for friend or foe, it swung its hammer left and right haphazardly, causing massive collateral damage as the hammer collided with surrounding buildings. Lovely and Princess seemed to struggle with its chaotic swings, constantly being pushed back as they tried to avoid one too many wild swings from that enormous creature. As they continued to battle, two more girls landed by their side and, for a brief moment, managed to block one of the Saiark's overhead swings and push it back a little.

The girl in yellow is Cure Honey. She is the only Precure of the four who fought with a weapon – a baton that she sometimes also used with ribbons. I considered her a support class type of Precure; her core skills cover healing, buffing and de-buffing, though she can be quite a handful in a fight and throws a very mean finisher. You wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that.

The purple one is Cure Fortune. I label her as the lone wolf type who eventually softens up and joins the group. Conceptually, she's the most experienced and strongest fighter of the four, but from what I had gathered earlier she must have just recently joined the group so her cohesion with the team may not be so solid yet.

The four of them launched a fresh set of attacks. With a brief flash of light, Cure Lovely's clothes transformed into a longer red dress with black high-heeled shoes. This is one of her form changes, Cherry Flamenco. With a graceful spin of a flamenco dancer, a ring of fire expanded around her and cleared the immediate surroundings of Choiarks. With fewer obstacles in the way, Princess, Honey and Fortune dashed past her and proceeded to engage the Saiark three-on-one.

It seemed as if the three girls would be able to push the Saiark back even more, but it quickly recovered from their attacks and continued swinging its hammer with reckless abandon. Princess was forced to take to the skies to avoid one of its many wild swings, while Honey and Fortune leapt back together, unable to hold on to their advantage any further. While their attention was drawn to the berserking Saiark, Choiarks began to surround them once more.

The four of them continued to lose ground over the combined fanaticism of the Choiarks and the ferocious advances of the Saiark. Namakelder, on the other hand, just hung back lazily and out of harm's way. The thought of sneaking up behind the Phantom Empire general with a heavy and blunt object briefly crossed my mind, but I hurriedly dismissed the idea as being too reckless. After seeing the Precures fight, and seeing how they moved, there was absolutely no way that any ordinary human could compete on their level.

Something had been bothering me about this fight but before I managed to put a foot on it, the battleground has expanded. As the fight spilled over to my position, I turned around and darted towards the next nearest piece of rubble that I could spot. I leapt over and ducked behind a large slab of concrete, noting that it was perhaps once part of a nearby shop, and hoped that I wasn't noticed during my brief sprint.

I was wrong. Something did take notice of me. I caught a glimpse of a shadow over me and quickly jumped aside as a foot came stomping down on my position. Turning to face my attacker, I was partially relieved to find out that it wasn't the Saiark. Still, there were at least half a dozen Choiarks standing before me, and I wasn't sure how I would stand up to a single Choiark, let alone a group of them.

Throwing caution to the wind, I curled up my fingers and swung as hard as possible at the nearest Choiark. My fist exploded in pain, immediately recoiling and forcing me to double back after the impact. It was a stupid move that only served to piss off the Choiark that I had hit. I reflexively raised my arms to protect myself from the inevitable beating, but what came next was completely unexpected and unparalleled.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a _fifth_ Precure had landed right in front of me and, with a single roundhouse kick, she sent the group of Choiarks airborne. The ease in which she defeated them made me think of how she was on a whole new level above the other four Precures. Come to think of it, I realized just what was off with this whole scenario. This Saiark, along with the whole fight had never occurred in canon. Furthermore, I didn't even recognize this new girl at all. The timeline here seemed to be completely off its rails. Was it my fault, my appearance in this world throwing the entire series off like this? Despite the urgency of the matter, I still couldn't help but ponder how unprecedented this entire scene was being played out.

This new arrival was attired in a completely different style from the other four Precures. For one, she did not have the same black corset-like dress that the others wore. Her dress seemed more like a very outlandish red sailor fuku, lined with white and yellow frills and ribbons with a large heart-shaped brooch on her chest. Her hair was a multi-coloured mix of crimson, blue, brown, yellow and white. When she turned her head towards me, I was unexpectedly drawn to her sparkling green eyes. She then leapt into the main fray, beating aside Choiarks with bewildering speed and precision.

I watched the battle unfold with my mouth agape. She swept aside Choiark after Choiark, and then went after the Saiark without waiting for the other four Cures to gather for support. In a rapid series of punches and kicks, she quickly brought it down to the ground. Without a single pause, she leapt to the skies and raised a single palm. A bright flash of light followed, and then the Saiark was bathed in a soft, warm glow. That was her finishing move, purifying the Saiark and restoring happiness to the nexus of dark and terrible feelings.

Having lost the Saiark, and therefore the fight, Namakelder threw some snide remarks at the Precures before disappearing, teleporting back to the Blue Sky Kingdom where the Phantom Empire was presently based from. Or at least that's where I had assumed he would go.

"Cure Crimson!" Lovely called out, obviously referring to this fifth new Cure, who simply nodded in response.

It was rather surprising that they both knew each other. Also, the title Crimson sounded completely out of place in this happiness-centric world. My mind swirled with theories and conjectures, but until I had a solid clue to latch onto, they were nothing more than theories and conjectures. I stepped out from cover and walked right up to the group. "Do you know each other?"

I didn't direct my question at any one in particular, but Lovely and Princess simply nodded to me. Honey and Fortune, on the other hand, expressed surprise and gave me odd looks, but that is to be expected. To them, a random stranger had just approached, asking questions as if he already knew them.

Cure Crimson didn't bother to pay any attention to me as she reverted back to her civilian form. I turned to her and asked, "and you are?"

She turned and stared me down with an icy gaze, seemingly irritated that I had even dared to speak to her. I then realized a slight mistake earlier about her eyes – only one of her eyes was green. Her other eye was sparking red. The palm of my hand craved to meet my face right there and then. It took all my effort to prevent that fateful meeting.

"I'm Ken," I repeated. "You are…?"

She sighed audibly before answering. "Akahime Marisu."

"Aka-what?"

"You heard me the first time," she shot back in an unpleasant tone. "In any case, I'm busy and have no time for games. See you around."

With that, she turned and walked away, nonchalantly waving to us with the back of her hand. Some part of me wanted to run after her and demand more answers, but the other part reminded me that I still had unfinished business with these girls to attend to.

"Mari… su…" I found myself muttering under my breath. Was that even a proper first name? I was caught off guard and wasn't even aware until later that my surroundings had already begun to magically restore itself, an effect that often followed after a Saiark had been defeated by the Precures.


	2. A God, a Fortune and a Sister

**Chapter 2: A God, a Fortune, and a Sister**

The nine of us were gathered together in the living room at The Embassy. This was the place where Hime stayed with Blue and Ribbon. While I was unsure if "The Embassy" was actually an official designation for this building or not, but it was still quite an apt title considering the fact that Hime was a real princess from a foreign world. It also helped that the place was big enough and had the right kind of look too.

All eight pairs of eyes were staring intently at me, waiting for me to speak. Usually I do not have trouble speaking to people. However, the uniqueness of my present situation was extraordinary enough that a loss of words on my part had to be reasonably understandable. As I pondered what to say to this unique collection of individuals, my eyes casually scanned each one of them.

First, Aino Megumi and Shirayuki Hime. They were the first two girls whom I had met earlier, so there was no need for any further introduction to them. Next was the yellow-haired Omori Yuuko, also known as Cure Honey. Her love for rice was legendary, as was her honey candy, supposedly. I made a mental note to myself: try her honey candy one day. Sitting beside her was the purple-haired Hikawa Iona, or Cure Fortune, the lone wolf who had almost fully opened up to the group and became a strong addition to the team.

My eyes glossed over to the only other teenage boy in the team, Sagara Seiji. He was a capable fighter, trained in karate like Iona, and also the childhood friend of Megumi. He and Megumi were prime candidates for shipping, so I made a note to look out for them, knowing that characters like Marisu were prowling about.

Then there were the two fairies, Ribbon and Glasan. Appearances-wise, they were relatively similar, looking to the casual observer like a pair of flying plush toys with large… bags, I had guessed… strapped to their backs. They looked like ladybugs or tortoises with those bags attached. Ribbon, Hime's fairy partner, was the pink-themed one whereas Glasan, Iona's partner, was purple. Glasan also sported a rockin' pair of glasses on her brow.

Finally, we move on to Blue. Everyone called him by the title _Kami-sama_, addressing him as a god. Presumably a deity of the earth, this blue-haired and blue-eyed entity was solely responsible for seeding the world with Pretty Cure for the express purpose of combating the worldwide Phantom Empire invasion. He gets around through mirrors, which could lead a traveller to just about anywhere in the world. The large mirror in The Embassy's living room led directly to his private chambers, a room of mirrors that essentially existed in another plane of existence and served as his base of operations.

Anyway, Blue was the person whom I wanted to meet and so here I was, choking over words to begin my explanation. This is never a good sign. I made another quick glance around the room to gauge what everyone was thinking about me. Unsurprisingly, they were all still staring intently at me, obviously eager to hear what I had to say. Iona and Seiji seemed to have a stern expression, however. Perhaps they were suspicious of my presence?

With a deep breath and sigh, I began. "Hello everyone. My name is Ken, and I come from another world." Megumi, Hime and Ribbon have already heard this, of course, but this was more for the benefit of the rest of the group. I continued, "I don't really know the circumstances of how I ended up here, but from where I come from there are people who know of the Pretty Cure and that is how I knew that Aino-san and Shirayuki-san were Precures." I was hoping to avoid mentioning the fact that they're fictional characters from where I come from. The present situation is already awkward enough as it is and there's no point in contributing more towards that aspect.

"I guess…" I paused for a moment and directed my gaze to Blue before continuing. "I'm hoping that perhaps Blue-sama might be able to help me find the way home?"

Blue seemed to stare outwards at nothing in particular, deep in thought. After a moment, he turned to look directly at me and said, "I think I understand your situation and what you are asking. But I feel that you have not told us the full story and that there are some remaining secrets you have chosen not to share with us."

My heart might have as well skipped a beat. I was totally called out like an amateur, and prepared for the worst possible outcome.

But Blue smiled instead. "Whatever secrets you have, I'm sure that you will tell us when the time is right. As long as you are sincere to yourself, I will help you find your way home."

That was an unexpected decision, as I had already expected more interrogation from him. "Umm… thanks… I think?" was all that I could eke out.

"Do you have a place to stay?" asked Blue.

"Unfortunately, no."

"Then you are welcome to stay with us until you manage to find your way home."

I have to admit, I was hoping very much for this outcome but it still came to me as a surprise. Megumi was beaming like her usual happiness-charged self. I couldn't read Hime that well, but if I were to guess I would say… a mix of surprise and displeasure, perhaps? It seemed that Iona and Seiji still had some bits of suspicion about me which I will probably need to clear up in the following days. Yuuko had the unexpected idea of making dinner for us all and was already on her way to the kitchen. Ribbon and Glasan seemed to be carrying a whispered conversation between themselves while occasionally throwing glances in my direction. I guess I already have my work cut out for me then.

* * *

><p>There was a lot more work to be done than I had expected. Since I had just appeared out of nowhere in this world, I had no money, no spare clothes and not a single piece of essential item on me. There was also the issue of finding work and earning my keep here; no one was expecting me to freeload during my stay here. But before we could even get to that, the more immediate concern was supplies. Iona and Glasan had volunteered to take me shopping while the rest either helped Yuuko with prepare dinner or prepare one of The Embassy's many rooms for me.<p>

"So, you come here often?" That was me, trying to initiate small talk with Iona as we entered a relatively normal-looking store. We came here to get essentials such as towels, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo and the like.

"The price of the things here are quite reasonable," she said without breaking her stride. She systematically ushered me from aisle to aisle, suggesting what things I need based on necessity and price, but it was mostly the price. And by suggesting, I meant directing. Before long, we were moving on to the next store for clothes, and then finally for groceries. The groceries part was mostly for stocking up The Embassy and addressing a list from Yuuko though.

Iona quickly and systematically went through the itinerary with such focus that I didn't get much opportunity to discuss anything serious with her. The opportunity presented itself, however, on the walk back.

"So, how did you meet Cure Crimson?"

Iona stopped and glared at me. "Marisu? Is this what it's about?"

"What's what about?" I asked, feigning ignorance.

"What's your interest with Marisu?" Both Iona and Glasan were now patiently awaiting my response.

It looked like we aren't going to be going home until this thing has been settled. "It's just that she doesn't seem to fit in. By that, I mean to say that I feel like she's also an outsider. If she is one, then I would very much like a word with her. After all, it could help with my situation."

"Is that so?" Iona relaxed a little bit, her glare softening into mere curiosity. She casually tossed a glance at Glasan, who just shrugged her shoulders in response. "Come to think of it, she does feel a little different from the rest of us. Anyway, if you wish to learn more about Marisu, you should ask Megumi or Hime. I haven't really talked to her much, and she doesn't seem like the talkative kind to me."

"Thanks." That came out of nowhere, and I wasn't exactly sure why my mouth decided to get a mind of its own.

"For what?"

Thanks for not suspecting me of anything malicious, even though I'm a total stranger who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and has tremendous intel on your team and their personal background and history, was what I could have said. Personal suicide in its finest form.

"It's nothing. Let's get back. It's getting late," is what I settled for instead.

* * *

><p>Before dinner, I had a chance to visit Blue's room – his inner sanctum – the room of mirrors that sat on another plane of existence. Countless mirrors floated around the blue interior, a fitting theme for a deity named Blue. It is said that these mirrors could connect one to another place or world, and this was what I was banking on to get me back.<p>

"Look upon the mirror and pour your feelings of home into it," Blue instructed.

That was about as vague as things could get. Since I wasn't really sure what that meant, I thought _hard_ about home and about family, particularly that annoying sister of mine. After nearly a minute of facial contortions, a probably useless skill I never realised I had, there was no reaction in any of the mirrors at all.

Blue placed his hand reassuringly on my shoulder. "It could be that your world is too distant for my mirrors to reach, or that your feelings for home are not strong enough yet. Either way, I'm sure that given time, a path will present itself so don't worry too much about what happened. It could be that the time has not yet come for you to return to your home."

"I see. Thanks for trying anyway." I dejectedly left Blue's chambers via mirror and returned to the living room of The Embassy, just in time for dinner to be served.

* * *

><p>Dinner went by rather uneventfully. I was quite glad for that, actually. With so much going on earlier today, I would have preferred to be given time to process all the information that I have gathered so far instead of being at the receiving end of more questions and answers. Yuuko's rice was fantastic, by the way.<p>

As I lay on the bed in my new room, I started organising my thoughts. Finding a way home was still a priority despite my earlier setback, but besides that, how did I get here in the first place? Why was I _brought_ here? I firmly believe some outside or unseen force must have brought me here for a reason. Although one could easily reason that I may have just stumbled upon some crack between parallel universes or whatever you called it, but the odds of that, and to end up in such a specific world, had to be so unlikely that I might have as well won the lottery ten times in a row.

I then focused my thoughts onto Marisu. Given the fact that she doesn't exist in any Pretty Cure story, she is very likely an outsider like me. So what is she doing here? Perhaps she may be the reason why I was brought here? In any case, it seemed that my best course of action was to investigate this girl and try to learn more about the circumstances surrounding her.

So perhaps going home can wait. Do I even want to go back to that boring place I call home, when there's adventure and excitement to be had here? It was a tempting thought indeed, but I decided to shelve that thought for now. Home can wait. Figuring out the mystery behind Marisu came first.

With that I closed my eyes and prepared for morning to come.

* * *

><p>"I don't know what your game plan is, but we need to talk."<p>

I coughed, spurting out a fine mist of coffee onto the table. I had planned to start searching for Marisu after finishing breakfast at Yuuko's shop but to have her seek me out instead took me by surprise. "Thanks for making me choke over my drink."

Marisu sat down across me and glared. It was the kind of glare where you were supposed to know that you did something wrong even though you weren't really sure what it was. I wasn't really prepared to have this conversation, so I deadpanned and waited for her response.

"Did something happen? What's with the cold shoulder?"

I was taken aback by her response. She obviously knew more than I had thought. "Am I supposed to be knowing something that I don't?"

"Look, you're just supposed to be-"

Marisu stopped and her face turned sour. Her gaze left me and began to lock onto something behind me. I turned to follow her gaze, not sure what to expect. Since we were inside a simple lunch shop, I wasn't expecting anything dramatic like the appearance of another Phantom Empire general or the like.

It was Megumi, Hime and Ribbon. The three of them had just entered the shop. Megumi smiled and waved when she noticed Marisu and me. Hime, on the other hand, seemed to be preoccupied by someone standing beside her, but I couldn't see that person because Megumi was in the way. It was probably either Iona or Seiji, as Hime seemed to be smiling and getting along quite well with that person.

I raised my hand and returned Megumi's greeting, while at the same time calling the attention of the rest of her group. "Yo!"

Marisu got up and prepared to leave. She's not the one to socialize, I suppose.

"Marisu-chan, you're not staying?" Megumi asked as she happily skipped over to our table.

"Sorry, but I'm busy today."

I stopped paying attention to Megumi or Marisu after that, because I had noticed Hime's companion. It was another girl that I didn't recognise. That wasn't the only problem, though. This was Hime. The shy, introverted Hime was getting along so well with a stranger, and that little fact alone raised all kinds of warning klaxons.

As Marisu walked past, I quickly grabbed and tugged at her sleeve. "Do you know that person?"

Marisu bent over to my ear and whispered, "I've never seen her before." After having said her piece, she nonchalantly shook me off and left. As she walked past the stranger, they both exchanged quick glances. The stranger seemed to give Marisu a disdainful look. If my imagination were even slightly wilder than it was now, there would be a sudden crack of thunder as the room turned dark while lighting arced and highlighted their silhouettes.

Megumi took a seat at the table and initiated some small talk with Yuuko. Hime was still busy talking to her companion, a fair-skinned girl with shoulder-length cyan hair. I still haven't gotten used to a world where bright and colourful hair is the norm.

"Hello, Shirayuki-san. Who's your friend?"

Hime froze. That's just great, isn't it? She can so easily get along with her companion but was still apprehensive towards me.

"She's Hime-chan's sister," Megumi answered in her stead.

"What?" That was really shocking news to me. A sister? I could see where this might be going. I wouldn't be surprised if the stranger was somehow a long lost twin sister who was separated at birth and therefore never meeting each other. Until now. Even worse, the cold expression that the stranger gave to Marisu was now completely gone, replaced by a beaming smile of epic proportions.

"Hi hi!" Her -_sister_ greeted me with as much enthusiasm as a sugar-rich Megumi _squared_ would. The feeling was nauseating. "I'm Marie-Sueanna Window Cure Diva of the Blue Sky. Pleased to meet you, err…"

"Ken."

"Pleased to meet you, Ken!" She ended that with a cutesy wink. Or at least it was meant to be cute, but at this point I was just disturbed by the whole exchange.

"Marie-Sueanna Window…" I lost track of the rest of her name.

"You can just call me Marie." She continued beaming at me, her smile occupying more of her face than I thought possible. The happiness was over nine thousand in this one, apparently. I just hoped that it wasn't infectious.

"And you are… Shirayuki-san's _sister_?"

"Yes, correct!" More happiness-charged smiles, with a raised index finger just for dramatic effect. I didn't know how long I could take it before contemplating seppuku.

"Though we only found out this morning," Megumi added.

"We were separated at birth, you see. I was brought up in the Dark Sea Kingdom where Hime nee-chan's uncle was king."

Great, so they've only met for a less than day and are already going by first name-_chan_ basis? I resisted the attempt to ask if they were twins. Part of me was really curious to know the answer, but at the same time I imagine I might have rage-flipped the table right there and then if I found out that they were.

I was really glad that I didn't ask.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: As some readers may already know, Shirayuki Hime is Himelda Window Cure Queen of the Blue Sky. Now, etymology-wise, I would presume that Window may be a family name while Cure Queen could be a title. Thus I kept Window in Marie's name but changed her title to Cure Diva, which seemed more apt considering her personality.


	3. There's Something About Marie

**Chapter 3: There's Something About Marie**

My head swam in thoughts as I sat at the table, systematically finishing my breakfast while the three girls – Megumi, Hime and Marie – continued chatting and gossipping about girl-things, I suppose. Yuuko also joined the conversation whenever she wasn't serving customers. I was too preoccupied in my thoughts to bother listening in on them.

Discounting me, there were now two outsiders tampering in this world. I use the word tampering because the timeline no longer matches the knowledge that I have of the actual fictional world. I didn't have any other explanation for the divergent timeline, after all.

"Let's go shopping later together, Megumi-chan!"

That familiar nauseating feeling wafted over me. Marie was dumping her overbearing, overcharged happiness onto Megumi – figuratively speaking, of course. She had left her seat and gave Megumi a big hug from behind, as if they had been BFFs forever. Hime was beside her, nodding approvingly at the pair. Even Ribbon seemed to be not bothered by Marie's over-the-top behaviour. I didn't bother to count how my times my eyes twitched at this unsightly scene.

Something has been bothering me ever since I arrived in this town. Meeting Marisu raised my suspicions even more, and now the appearance of Marie confirmed it. The timeline in this world has seriously gone out of control, and I don't know how much further it is going to stray from canon. The presence of these two outsiders were the most likely cause. Could the timeline be reeled back in? Could I do such a thing? Perhaps this was the reason that I was brought to this world. It certainly made some amount of sense. Things always happen for a reason, and I'd like to believe that some outer force was guiding me here in order to repair a damaged timeline and prevent further deviation from canon. I wondered if these two even realised what they were doing, and what their motivations are in the first place. In any case, my immediate task was to prevent this shopping trip from ever happening in the first place.

"Hey, Aino-san…" I began.

"Call me Megumi," she interrupted. "You don't have to be so formal around us."

I blinked, caught off my stride for a moment. "Megumi-san…"

"Just Megumi will do, okay?" She was beaming like her usual self, but Marie was already beginning to stare at me with an unsightly gaze. That's good, I think? At the very least, I've got their attention.

"Okay. Megumi… didn't we have something else to do today?" It had just occurred to me that we _didn't_ actually have anything planned out, but I was just winging it right out from my proverbial behind. The whole point of this exercise was to immediately get in the way of the outsider, Marie; I would need to think of some excuse later.

"Did we?"

"Oh, you must have forgotten," I said, smiling uncomfortably like a kid who had just been caught doing something bad. "Anyway, we wouldn't want to get in the way of Shirayuki-san's and her sister's quality time, would we? I'm sure that they will have a lot to catch up on."

Marie's burning gaze was now on me as she attempted to murder me with her mind. I paid no attention to it and hoped that Megumi would fall for my sorry excuse of a lie. If it did any good, I also tried to pretended and blush, fidgeting nervously in my seat. How does one pretend to blush anyway?

"Yes, why don't we let Hime-chan and Marie-chan have their own quality sibling time together so that we don't interrupt Ken's more urgent business," Yuuko said, suddenly appearing beside Megumi and giving me a subtle wink. I didn't really appreciate that I was giving out the wrong signal, but what the heck. The end justifies the means. At least for now. To further make her point, she began gently ushering Hime and her so-called sister out of the shop. "Alright, get on with the shopping before it gets late, you two."

Another wink from Yuuko. Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into.

* * *

><p>"So, what was it that we were supposed to do?"<p>

Megumi and I were sitting at the park, munching on some snacks that we had obtained before leaving Yuuko's lunch shop. I spent a moment gazing at the tranquillity of the river, thinking about the sort of excuse I was going to use. I had nothing.

A new strategy was called for — when all else fails, deflect a question with a question. "Megumi… have you noticed anything strange about the past couple of days here?"

"What kind of strange things?"

"For example, me appearing out of nowhere, claiming to be from another world. Then Hime's long lost sister shows up. And what about Marisu? How did you come to know her? Was she the same like Marie and me?"

"I don't know if I could call you all strange. After all, a lot has been happening ever since I met Hime and Blue and became a Precure." Megumi smiled softly, probably reminiscing all of Hime's awkward moments trying to approach and befriend her. "As for Marisu, she appeared one day and helped me and Fortune defeat a powerful general."

That powerful general could only mean one thing. "Phantom?"

Megumi nodded. It made sense. Phantom, nicknamed the Precure Hunter, was the most powerful general amongst the four main Phantom Empire generals. To have Marisu swoop in and save the day at that point in time would certainly be an effective and timely dramatic entrance that served to earn their trust.

Then she dropped her smile and looked right into my very soul, or at least that's how it felt. "How do you know so much about us anyway? Are you one of those sleazy reporter types looking for a scoop? Are you trying to out-scoop Mass Communication?"

Oh, her. Nicknamed Mass Communication, Masuko Miyo was a news anchor and reporter who came to Pikarigaoka in order to learn the identities of the Happiness Charge Precure team, who at that time only consisted of Megumi, Hime and Yuuko. She turned out to be a decent person in the end who just wanted to support the Precures in their fight against the Phantom Empire. But for Megumi to think that I'm in this for a scoop? That went south rather quickly.

"No," I answered. "I'm absolutely not a reporter at all. Besides, I've already said that I come from another world. How would an off-world reporter even benefit from this sort of scoop?"

She deadpanned. I deadpanned right back at her. Perhaps that wasn't the best course of action, because it had become a staring contest between us to see who would blink first. Seriously, I don't know how why I keep ending up in weird situations like this. Then the jolt of a distant explosion saved me from any awkward conclusion that would have come out of this.

"It came from the shopping district," Megumi concluded after staring in the direction of the blast.

"Let's go!"

* * *

><p>The shopping district was in utter chaos. People were running down the streets in panic. A child was crying, standing alone on the street and ignored by the rest of the crowd. Megumi was about to run up to the child when Seiji beat her to the little boy and pulled him towards safety.<p>

"I'll handle the evacuation. You should hurry on ahead."

Megumi nodded at her childhood friend and sprinted onwards. Seiji then looked at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to be there." Without waiting for Seiji's response, I quickly ran after Megumi.

As we approached ground zero, signs of corruption began to manifest. Oversized bits and pieces of cakes and candies jutted out of the nearby buildings like cancerous growths invading the healthy portions of Pikarigaoka. This was most definitely the work of Hosshiwa. The sweets general, obsessed with all manner of unhealthy junk food, commanded Saiarks that corrupted the city with cakes and candy. Again, this whole notion sounded very silly indeed, but that didn't negate the fact that the Saiark involved could still turn an ordinary human into paste in a single punch. I made a mental note to stay clear of Saiarks.

We soon reached the centre of the shopping district and caught sight of the gigantic Saiark swinging shopping bags wildly in the air while Cure Princess flew around it, making sure to stay out of its range. The Phantom Empire general, Hosshiwa, sat cross-legged at a makeshift tea table across the street, lazily overseeing the battle while she enjoyed a portion of cake.

The Saiark itself wore a pink scarf, labelling it as Hosshiwa's. It carried several shopping bags in its hand, no doubt the result of the general entrapping a hapless shopping addict here. It used these bags as bludgeons, attempting to swat Cure Princess out of the sky. Swooping back and out of its range, she started rapidly punching into the air with both her fists. In doing so, dozens of magical blue bullets formed and launched themselves towards the Saiark. They splashed onto the Saiark like raindrops, but aside from making it look rather irritated the bullets had not made any lasting impact.

Megumi held out her _PreChanMirror_, the device that allows a girl to transform into her Pretty Cure form, in her hand and was about to activate it when she hesitated. We spotted another Precure entering the battle and fighting alongside Cure Princess.

This newcomer was attired almost similar to Cure Princess which included her black corset, blue skirt and white accents, except that her Cure form had more sparkly silver bits. She wielded a small wand with a blue heart-shaped gem at the tip. Gesturing towards the Saiark in a twirling, circular motion, sparkles of silver and blue light shot out from the wand and washed over the Saiark. The attack pushed the enormous creature back, giving Cure Princess an opening to make a move. By activating a small bracer with a heart-shaped gem on her left hand, the _LovePreBrace_ generated a globe of blue energy with a ring around it. Swinging her fist in a circular motion, Princess punched the manifestation of her power and launched it towards the Saiark. Engulfed by her purification attack, the Saiark soon dissolved into nothing and was defeated.

Once again, the Phantom Empire general spat out some crude remarks before teleporting away. The battlefield gradually began to magically restore itself once all traces of the enemy had gone.

We approached Cure Princess and the newcomer. Princess reverted to her civilian form, Hime, while the newcomer revealed herself as no other than Marie, Hime's sister.

Megumi looked star struck. "Marie-chan is a Precure?"

She nodded. "I'm Cuuuuuuuuure Sparkle!" She said it with so much enthusiasm, topping it off with a leap into the air with her right fist raised towards the heavens.

I facepalmed, sighed, rolled eyes and used every other expression one would expect for such a scenario. Well of course Marie is a Pretty Cure. Why wouldn't she be? Why would any random stranger that suddenly appeared in this world claiming to be someone's long lost sister _not_ be a Pretty Cure? Nothing surprised me now. Absolutely nothing.

Marie wrapped one arm around Hime and extended her other hand towards us, giving Megumi the 'v' sign for victory. I resisted the urge to gag, while Marie tried her best to ignore me.

* * *

><p>Dinner at The Embassy was a little more crowded than yesterday. To be more specific, dinner was one person more than yesterday. Yes, poor little homeless Marie-chan has joined Team Happiness Charge and was staying here now, and again it was decided that this was something to celebrate about. Hence dinner. Again. Honestly, I'm not surprised at all by this sudden development. As I have said before, absolutely nothing surprised me now. But in a way, I suppose it was a good thing for her to be here. I could keep an eye on her, though at the same time I was also glad that she wasn't just adjacent or anywhere within an arm's length of my room.<p>

Oh, and did I mention that dinner itself was awkward? In addition to Marie's boundless energy that could surpass even the most enthusiastic _Genki Girl_ in animedom, she was constantly trying to affectionately feed Megumi, who kept shying away from each spoonful, seemingly rather embarrassed by her advances. Marie was also recounting her exploits from her supposed homeland, the Dark Sea Kingdom, where she went on adventures on great ships fighting off monsters and pirates as Cure Sparkle. In her own words, she was the "sparkle of light and glimmer of hope over the dark waters." And I'm a monkey's uncle, was something that I had to resist adding to it.

One good thing came out of this though. It was very good motivation to quickly finish dinner and get away from the table as quickly as humanly possible. She had begun to boast about her great exploits fighting the Phantom Empire when I took my leave and headed straight into the kitchen to clean my own plate. My ears wanted no part in whatever stories she still had to tell.

Later that night, I was gazing out into the night sky on the balcony when I felt the presence of someone approaching. Without looking back, I had guessed that it was Iona and her fairy partner, Glasan. For a moment we just stood there, gazing at the stars and enjoying the peace and quiet that night brought. Finally, Iona decided to speak. "Did you learn anything new about Marisu?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "Say, Hikawa-san…"

"You can call me Iona."

"Iona, what do you think about Marie?"

"She's quite the enthusiastic one, I'll admit, but I'm guessing that's not exactly what you're asking." She waited for my nod before continuing. "She seems quite suspicious to appear out of nowhere and so easily join the team."

"You think so too, huh?" I continued gazing into the abyss. It was a clear sky tonight, so we could see the night sky in its full glory. "What about you, Glasan?"

"I don't remember ever hearing about her," the little fairy replied as she floated onto the balcony railings and made herself comfortable on the flat, concrete frame. "She could have been sent to the Dark Sea Kingdom before I knew of her, but now there is no way to confirm her story. At least not until we can retake the Blue Sky Kingdom from Queen Mirage and the Phantom Empire one day. Then we can ask the head Librarian or search the royal archives to learn more about her."

I sighed out in relief. "At least I've got someone on my side. Everyone else seems head-over-heels over the new girl."

"Don't misunderstand, though," Iona said, her tone stern and direct. "I think you are suspicious too."

"You wouldn't be you if you were too trusting," I replied. "But I think I'm glad."

"How so?" Iona turned to study and judge me by my response.

"You wouldn't be you if you had just trusted me, or the new girl, just like that. At least I know that I can still trust you to act rationally when it comes to dealing with people like Marie and me. To be blunt, Megumi's too trusting and Yuuko is probably too kind. Hime doesn't seem to trust me and hasn't opened up to me yet."

"I don't trust you too, remember?"

"I know. But at least I can still talk to you and know that you will reply honestly."

"You're a strange one," she said. Glasan nodded in agreement.

We continued watching the stars for a little bit longer before Iona turned to leave. "I should join the others. You should get some rest."

"Thanks."

"For what this time?"

"I'm glad that we could have his conversation."


	4. Three's Company

**Chapter 4: Three's Company**

Day three, and I am still an outsider stuck in this fictional world where magical girls transform and fight invaders from another dimension. At least that's the gist of it.

The order of the day was washing dishes and cutting potatoes for Yuuko's parents at their lunch shop, Omori Gohan. I did mention that I had to earn my keep for the duration of my stay, so here I was. Earning my keep.

It wasn't a very pleasant experience though, and by that I do not mean that working for Yuuko's parents was unpleasant. It was meant in the context that I had to constantly keep looking over my shoulder, hoping that Marie wasn't about to stab me in the back with that sharp knife of hers. She was also working here in the kitchen, currently cutting onions, and most likely fuming about it too. It was all my fault, and I am proud of it.

The night before, we had all been discussing details about Marie's accommodations along with my employment. I decided to become a helper at Yuuko's lunch shop. At least I was with a familiar face, and a Pretty Cure too if anything involving Phantom Empire generals and Saiarks were to happen. At the same time, I had casually thrown out the suggestion that Marie should also get some work done, if not only to help orient her with the ways of the world. It was a very convenient arrangement. I could keep my eye on Marie and she was prevented from harassing Megumi. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she wouldn't be so fond of such an arrangement, and yet had no way to back out without keeping up her beaming pretense with the rest of the group.

Time passed us quickly and before we knew it, it was lunch and the place was packed. This meant that we had to work harder, nonstop, until this flurry of activity was over. I threw some quick glances to see how Marie was doing; she was now busy chopping spring onions and looked like she could still go on for hours. Chalk it up as one of the perks of being a magical girl.

We had our break immediately after the flurry of lunch activities ended. Then it was back to work again for another couple of hours before our shift was finally over. It was also about time that the rest of the girls had left school. I found myself wondering if they would drop by for a snack.

"Hey! You."

I was taken by surprise. I hadn't noticed Marie coming to sit at the opposite end of the table. Her gaze felt like it was about to burn a hole in my forehead, boring its way through it and out the back.

"Something on my face?"

She deadpanned, clearly unamused by my quip. "Stop getting in my way."

"Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about," I said, feigning ignorance.

"You know what I mean, if you know what's good for you."

"Is that a threat?" I leaned forward on the table and looked her straight in the eye. "What's in it for you anyway?"

"That's none of your business." She averted her eyes, staring at random things around us. Clearly she was uninterested in carrying on this conversation any further.

"Hey all!" We heard Megumi's voice, but I had already felt her presence – the sheer, overwhelming aura of happiness – before she had even spoken.

Marie's serious and gloomy expression immediately shifted to a bright, beaming one. "Megumi-chan!" She began waving enthusiastically like a kid on Christmas day. Seriously, enough of this sugar-coated act.

I did my best to muster up a smile, then turned around to greet Megumi and company.

She was with Seiji, Hime, Yuuko, Ribbon and another stranger. Blonde and well-endowed, this girl seemed to continually glance at us nervously while constantly keeping her hands close to her chest. Seiji had to casually usher her towards us, otherwise she would have just froze and stood there at the entrance for eternity. An immediate, overwhelming sense of dread and déjà vu washed over me. Remember the time I said that nothing would surprise me? I take that back. This is getting more and more ridiculous, and I wasn't sure how long this was going to keep up.

The group took their seats around the table, while Seiji helped usher the newcomer into a chair. Yuuko went over to the counter to grab an apron. I guess she was going to be our waitress.

I really, really did not want to go through this, but I mentally forced myself to. "So Sagara-san, who's your friend?"

"This is my cousin, Mari. Mari, this is Ken."

"H- Hello. My- my name's Sugimoto Mari. P-pleased to meet you," she said, stuttering all the way. She was blushing throughout the whole exchange.

I returned her greeting for the sake of formality, before turning my attention to Seiji. "I didn't know that you had a cousin here?"

"She's from a distant relative. She spent most of her childhood in Europe but followed her parents to Pikarigaoka on some business. My parents volunteered me to keep her company during her stay here."

Miss Sugimoto hurriedly nodded along with Seiji's explanation. I quickly turned around, unable to resist rolling my eyes but not wanting to insult Seiji or the others at the same time. "Sorry, I thought I saw something back there. Turned out to be nothing at all."

In the end, nothing particularly interesting happened during that gathering. Everyone exchanged pleasantries, Marie tried to smother herself on Megumi, Hime kept avoiding eye contact with me and Miss Sugimoto was as stiff as a zombie, staring at her feet for the entire duration of the conversation except when prompted to by her cousin.

We soon left the premises, waving goodbye to Yuuko and promising to meet up later at The Embassy. Miss Sugimoto was coming along too, apparently. Well, of course she was coming along and I didn't even bother to question it. I was pretty sure that she had a completely valid reason to be tagging along with the rest of us like we were all part of one big, close-knit group already. I nearly choked on those thoughts afterwards.

My mind wandered a little as we walked, and thought about Marisu. I haven't seen her all day, but had just come to realise something that was off about her. Her _modus operandi_ wasn't quite the same as these other two newcomers, who have quickly integrated into the group as soon as they introduced themselves. Marisu, on the other hand, was still operating independently, and hadn't made any attempt to join us. In fact, it seemed like she was distancing herself from everyone. Finally, she seemed to know something about me that she wasn't telling. I made a mental note to question her more when we meet again.

* * *

><p>We arrived at The Embassy without incident. I was mildly amused that we did not encounter any unexpected explosions, Saiarks or some other random spectacle, followed by a dramatic reveal of Miss Sugimoto being another Pretty Cure and then taking centre stage to defeat the enemy there and then. Why have I become so cynical all of a sudden?<p>

As we all reached the front entrance and awaited our turn to enter, I caught a flicker of movement at the corner of my eye. I thought I saw a figure lurk under a tree across the road, but now it was gone. Curious indeed.

"Are you coming in, Ken?"

"In a minute," I answered. I scanned the trees again, but there was no longer anything to find. I sighed and made my way inside.

"E- Everyone! I- I have s-something to s-say!" Miss Sugimoto continued to stutter nervously as she tried to address us.

Blue, Iona and Glasan were already in the living room with the rest of us when Miss Sugimoto had decided to make her unannounced speech. I quietly let out another sigh, uninterested with this spectacle and silently made my way to the stairs.

"I'm Cure Twilight and I would like to join the Happiness Charge Pretty Cure team!"

I stopped and froze for a moment, but quickly regained my composure, made a conscious effort to roll my eyes and then continued my way up the stairs and towards my room. I was about halfway up when I heard a pair of footsteps behind me, so I changed my mind and veered towards the balcony instead.

"A third one. Things are getting more interesting, don't you think?"

"I really don't have any words for this," Iona replied as she came up to the balcony beside me. Glasan soon floated up alongside her.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know." She looked down and slowly shook her head, placing a hand on her chest. "All I have are feelings of suspicion, that all of this feels somehow not right, but I have nothing concrete to support them."

Glasan floated up to reach her head and patted her. "Are you all right, Iona?"

"I'm fine, Glasan. I'm just a little overwhelmed with all the things that happened recently. I thought that once I had joined the team, we could all train and become stronger together, but all of a sudden there are so many complications."

Glasan could only look down and continue to comfort her partner.

I remembered Marie's threat earlier today. Iona could be useful here. "Say Iona… If I were in danger, would you protect me?"

Iona turned to stare at me with a puzzled look, her brow furrowed. "What kind of question is that?"

"Sorry?"

"As long as you aren't the enemy, I would protect anyone in this city from harm," she replied with a most stern and serious expression.

"I guess that means you've got my back, huh?"

"Oh please don't try and thank me again," she replied, and I had half-expected it anyway. By now, she would have been clued in to my habit of randomly thanking her from out of nowhere. "I'm tired. I need to get some rest so that I can have a clear head to think properly about this."

Iona turned to go and Glasan followed behind her, leaving me to my thoughts.

I spent some more time gazing into the starry sky before deciding to go back in. By now, everyone seemed to have left for home and Marie was probably in her room as well. I was about to retire to my room when I heard the creak of a door downstairs. Simply out of curiosity, I crept down and to have a peek. The kitchen door was slightly ajar, so I snuck down, went past the empty living room and crept towards the kitchen. Peeking through the narrow slit, it seemed that Miss Sugimoto was still up and about, and was apparently making tea. She poured the results of her efforts into a little teacup across the table, seemingly all nervous about it. "I… I hope you like my tea, Blue-sama."

I involuntarily swallowed, and proceeded to choke over my own saliva going down the wrong channel. Miss Sugimoto and Blue were obviously alerted to my hacking cough, so I quickly rushed in and towards the kitchen sink, taking great effort to pretend that I haven't noticed them as I took a gulp of cool water. Satisfied that my feint had worked, I turned around and jerked backward a little, indicating surprise. "Oh, I didn't notice the two of you."

Blue smiled and eyed me curiously while Miss Sugimoto's extremely shy demeanour turned into a glare, though it was clear to me that she had stepped back a little behind Blue to make sure that her change of expression went unnoticed. "I just came down for some water. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" I asked.

"No, not at all," Blue answered. "We were just having some tea. Would you care to join us?"

"Tea? This late at night?" Seriously, who does such a thing? "I think I'll pass. I need to get some sleep later, after all."

Blue let out a faint chuckle as he took a sip from the teacup. "You're right, of course. Sugimoto-san here was just experimenting with a new flavour, and wanted me to be the first to have a go at it." He turned around to face Miss Sugimoto. "It tastes good."

Miss Sugimoto beamed at him, completely ignoring my presence this time. "Thank you so much, Blue-sama!" she exclaimed, like an overexcited child receiving a compliment.

I rolled my eyes for the _n_-th time today and decided that enough was enough. "Well, I'm off to bed. It's getting late, and I suggest Sugimoto-san do the same. We wouldn't people to worry now, would we?"

"Ken's right. It's about time you went home," Blue said.

Miss Sugimoto gave him a courteous bow before leaving, but not before throwing what looked like a menacing glare in my direction as she left the kitchen. I waited to make sure that she was really out of the house before I took my leave also, and retired to my room.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: In the original draft, I referred to Mari as "Mari", but as it turns out, "Marie and Mari" will become an incredibly awkward phrase, so pre-emptively using "Miss Sugimoto" seems better.


	5. The Phantom Menace

**Chapter 5: The Phantom Menace**

"Sai-ark!"

Today was most certainly not my day. I would have been content if I were just threatened by Marie again at Omori Gohan, or even if yet another long lost sister or cousin appeared out of nowhere to join the team. But no, because of all things that could go wrong today, I got to be chased by a Saiark.

"Sai-ark!"

That's the battle cry of a Saiark as it pursued me through town. I weaved in and out of the multitude of streets and alleyways of Pikarigaoka, not really sure where I was going as I randomly made snap decisions at each turn. The incredibly loud and obvious stomping of the Saiark, intermingled with the occasional crashing of concrete and rubble, was an overt reminder of the mortal danger that I was in, though I didn't have the nerve to look back and see just how close it was.

It would have only been a small matter if it was just about me being chased by a lone Saiark. But no, things are much, much worse. The entire town was crawling with Saiarks and I just happened to be unlucky enough to catch the attention of one while the Pretty Cures were busy dealing with countless others. The situation was such that I couldn't reliably count on anyone to show up to get this Saiark off my back, so I was left running around like a headless chicken, hoping to find a hole in which to crawl under and hide.

The day itself started very routinely enough. Routine work with Marie, while attempting to survive her murderous gazes in the kitchen at Omori Gohan, was supposed to be the order of the day. Things had changed all of a sudden when a terrible, hateful sensation washed over me. It was very peculiar and hard to describe; one moment you're thinking happy thoughts and the next, something inside is urging you to hate everything you see for some irrational, inexplicable reason or other. The sensation only lasted moments as an almost-physical wave of terribleness coursed through the store and, most likely, then entire town of Pikarigaoka. In the blink of an eye, all the customers at Omori Gohan had become trapped in dark mirrors, and the streets outside were populated by Saiarks. That was not a good thing at all. The one time I recall this happen in canon, Phantom, the Precure Hunter, had come to town.

There was a brief flash of light behind me. I turned just in time to spot Marie, having transformed into her Pretty Cure form, dash out through the back door. I considered rushing out after her, but decided that my well-being was more important than mere curiosity. There were numerous giant monstrosities outside, after all. I'd have to trust the Happiness Charge team to handle this situation, and hoped that the three outsiders would not interfere. Ideally I'd be out there policing the trio, making sure that the timeline doesn't get derailed further by their actions, but that's really out of the question when the equivalent of man-crushing predators are prowling the streets.

A familiar sensation pricked my curiosity, like the feeling of someone watching you from afar. I wheeled around to catch a glimpse of a figure outside Omori Gohan, across the road. I could be wrong, but I swore it was the same person I had seen outside The Embassy the day before, and this time the figure seemed to be staring right at me. Noticing my returned gaze, it quickly ducked behind a corner and disappeared from my field of view. Did I just earn myself a stalker? As if I didn't already have enough on my plate to deal with!

Throwing caution to the wind, I rushed out of the building and sprinted straight towards the spot where the figure had been watching me. Around the corner, I caught yet another glimpse of the figure dash across and into an alleyway. I took a deep breath and continued my pursuit. I wasn't going to let this stranger out of my sight this time!

I reached the end of the alleyway and turned to where I thought the figure had gone, only to come to an abrupt stop. I had nearly bumped into a wandering Saiark. My heart must have skipped a beat there and then, while my legs took over without my conscious input. I slowly backed away, quietly creeping into the alley and completely forgetting about pursuing my stalker. Then a loud crash completely tossed all my efforts into the wind. I must have tripped over a garbage can as I was backing away, but that was now the least of my concerns. The Saiark began to turn around to find the cause of the commotion. I did not wait for that to happen; I scrambled to my feet and ran, and this is how I ended up in my present predicament.

* * *

><p>A loud thunderous boom followed by the familiar sound of crumbling masonry reminded me that the Saiark was still close behind, while my legs were starting to give way to fatigue. I stumbled across another intersection and nearly crashed into an overturned garbage can as I picked another random direction to run.<p>

I took another corner and found myself staring at the familiar open park when a strong wind brushed across my face. A figure must have darted past me and began engaging the Saiark that was pursuing me. A sense of security came over me as I slowed down, turned and curiously took stock of the situation. It was Cure Crimson, battling the confused Saiark and delivering a flurry of physical punishment that sent the creature stumbling backwards.

A quick scan of my surroundings revealed no signs of nearby Saiarks, beside the one that Crimson was beating down. Across the river, something darted across the cityscape, followed by another, and then another. Soon, a giant four leaf clover-shaped manifestation came crashing down from the heavens. I recognised that was the signature finisher of Cure Honey, and came to the conclusion that the Happiness Charge Precure team was fighting somewhere across the river, and some unfortunate Saiark had just been at the receiving end of that orbital strike.

The sounds of battle from behind came to an abrupt end. I glanced around the corner and could no longer spot Cure Crimson nor the Saiark. Having been left alone again, I considered my choices — either sneak back to Omori Gohan and hide there until the invasion was eventually stopped, or try to get across the river and join up with the Happiness Charge crew. It took but a moment to decide on the latter option.

* * *

><p>The river that ran across Pikarigaoka wasn't very wide, relatively speaking, but it was still too wide to safely swim across. The sane option would be to cross the bridge. However, that would leave me wide open if I were to be spotted while halfway across. Held back by that dilemma, I crouched behind an overturned park bench to keep a low profile and consider my two options.<p>

The first option was to sprint across the bridge. Knowing my physical limits, I should be able to cross quickly but if I came across any sort of trouble, I may not have enough vigour to handle yet another mad, sustained pursuit. The second option was a more exciting one, if this were an 80's action adventure movie. It involved sneaking across the river from underneath the bridge, using whatever foothold and support that was available to carry me across. It was a very tempting choice, actually; it was more daring and may actually be safer from a practical point of view. But I had no experience sneaking under bridges, and wouldn't know what to do if I actually fell into the river. So the only realistic option was to simply dash across and hope for the best. Saiarks are often silly enough to give you a warning with their battle cries, so at least I'd get a reasonable head start if I were spotted halfway across.

Having made my decision, I cautiously crept across the open area of the park, keeping to a lower profile to reduce visibility. Whenever there were shrubs or similar obstacles I would travel along them. This was a lot taxing than I had anticipated, but it sure beats running for dear life! That was spoken too soon, as the brushes nearby suddenly trembled while the ground shook. I instantly froze, holding my breath in the process. There was a crunching sound, followed by more rustling of leaves. That familiar, _terrible_ sensation washed over me as a Saiark came very, very close to my hiding spot. I dared to take a peek.

"Sai-ark!"

I nearly jumped, terrified by the loud battle cry of the Saiark. There was a loud thud, followed by a series of quick taps. I peeked over the brush again. Cure Fortune had engaged the Saiark, throwing a flurry of punches and kicks at it until it lost its balance and fell over. Glasan cheered her on from the sidelines. She raised her arms, calling forth a purple star over her head and then hurled this magical projectile at the Saiark. The creature was engulfed in a magical purple glow, whimpering as it faded away, purified by Fortune's finisher.

I was about to get up and call out to her, but we were interrupted by another battle cry. Several more Saiarks had crawled out of the woodwork some distance away. Cure Fortune sped ahead to deal with the new arrivals while Glasan cautiously followed behind. Soon, they both disappeared around a corner, though I could still hear the sounds of battle as Fortune engaged the enemy in furious melee.

A spark of realisation hit me. This was a very important turning point in canon. Cure Fortune would soon meet Phantom, the Precure Hunter and he would lure her into a trap. Assuming the canon timeline is still preserved, Glasan would then find the other Precures and rush to Fortune's aid together. However, with so many monkey wrenches thrown into the timeline, I wasn't certain if things would still turn out the way they should. If only I could preempt the event by finding the Precures sooner and alert them of Fortune's fate. They should just be somewhere across the bridge; if I didn't tarry I might still be able to find them based on Cure Honey's orbital strike earlier.

Thanks to Cure Fortune, the path was now clear so I quickly dashed across the park, all the while keeping my head low and my posture hunched. I reached the bridge in a huff. After taking one final look around, I made the quick sprint onto the bridge itself. It would take less than a minute if I maintained my low profile and rapid but soft pace.

Soon enough, I had reached the middle of the bridge. From here, I could see most of the city. It was eerily quiet, punctuated by the occasional boom or crack from a distant fight, often perpetuated by some random beam of light or giant clover from the heavens. Even the sky was bereft of avian life; all the birds must have been frightened away at the beginning of the invasion. In any case, I took another step forward, and felt a tremor as the entire bridge groaned from my footstep.

I froze. That did not make sense at all. Curiously, I took another step forward. Nothing happened this time. On my third step, the bridge shuddered again. "Oh crap," I managed to mutter before the river itself came alive underneath me.

A single but gargantuan Saiark emerged from the depths of the river, rearing itself like a sleeping giant awakening from slumber, and then standing waist-deep in the water and spreading its _terrible_ feelings all around. It lazily turned its head left and right like predator scanning for fresh blood. It would soon spot me in the middle of the bridge where I had nowhere to hide, so I had a split second to decide if I should duck or run.

My adrenaline-charged body made the decision for me. I dashed across the remaining half of the bridge, feeling like a world class sprinter about to hit the finishing line. Then the entire bridge shuddered, the ground ahead turning into a cracked pattern of crumpled metal and loose rubble. A beam of metal rose from under my feet like a gigantic springboard, and before I realised what had happened, I was sent flying. I briefly basked in the sensation of hurtling through the air faster than my legs could carry before realising that gravity had already begun taking hold.

The landing was fast and brutal. I only managed to register pain, tumbling, pain, vertigo, more pain and a sudden collision that knocked the wind right out of me. I instinctively curl up into a ball and tried to protect my head with both hands. Everything flashed red, the stinging sensation of pain forcing tears out of my tightly-shut eyes.

I don't know how long I had laid there. It felt like an eternity. Then something grab hold of me by the collar. I was hefted up with both legs dangling in the air. Two soft hands wrapped themselves around my neck. The weight of my lower body began to pull down on my head and neck. My hands instinctively wrapped themselves around the soft hands of my assailant, desperately trying to fight against the ever-tightening grip but to no avail. Whoever it was, it — no, she — was surprisingly strong. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

Without warning, my assailant loosed her grip and dropped me. I began hearing voices. Some of them might even be calling out my name, but it was too indistinct to register. In fact, everything became too indistinct, and I had no recollection of what happened after that because everything turned black.


	6. Missed Opportunities

**Chapter 6: Missed Opportunities**

In the darkness of my dreams, an infinite landscape of coloured stalks snaked around each other, ending with a shining light. They were like a sea of fibre optic cables, swaying to the ether like seaweed in the vast ocean floor. Each stalk constantly grew, as though alive, becoming longer as time passed. Once in a while one would split into two, and then both branches would continue growing on their own. Sometimes a stalk appeared to die, its entire length dissipating in a shower of colourful lights.

I found myself swaying to the unseen eddies of the world, going left, right, forward and back to the rhythm of the waves that commanded the endless light stalks. I felt like _I_ was shining brightly, like a blooming flower ready to see the world, ready to take flight and leave my roots behind, ready to flow with the etheric eddies and become one with them, only to be pulled back by some unseen hands. I struggled to press forward, only to be sucked back into my own light, still shining brightly as it devoured me and left my world a blinding white and endless horizon.

I slowly opened my eyes. As my eyes adjusted to the dimly lit surroundings, I began to recognise the ceiling and the warm sheets that covered me. I turned and saw the familiar wooden study desk and the plain white chair that was pushed in tidily. I was back in my room at The Embassy.

There was a bowl on top of the desk. It was covered and a soup soon lay neatly on top. I turned to my side and tried to push myself up, only to be greeted by a sharp and stabbing pain in my abdomen. I slumped back in bed before noticing that I was half naked and covered in bandages.

The door creaked. The familiar face of Omori Yuuko peered through the small gap of the open door. A smile formed on her lips when she saw me. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. "You're finally awake."

I tried to force myself up again, this time using both hands as leverage to push my half-limp body up. The pain was still crippling and my arm muscles faltered, buckling under the weight of my body. Yuuko rushed forward and caught me with one hand, and then gently ushered me down again. "Don't try to get up yet. Your body hasn't fully recovered."

"What happened?"

"There'll be plenty of time to talk about that later," she said as she pulled the chair out and took a seat beside me. "Can you eat?"

"I think so," I said as I propped myself up with my elbows. "Can you help me up?"

Yuuko got up and grabbed a pair of pillows that lay at my feet. After tucking them behind my back, she reached over to uncover the bowl and proceeded to stir the contents using the soup spoon.

"I think I can help myself." I reached out, gesturing towards the bowl.

"Be careful, it's still a little warm." Yuuko carefully placed the bowl in my outstretched hands, and once I had the bowl of broth in a comfortable position she handed me the spoon.

"Thanks."

"It's my pleasure." She eagerly watched as I took my first mouthful.

The warm but sweet broth tasted like sweet nectar in my food-starved mouth. "It's delicious."

She beam with happiness, and probably pride too, at the compliment.

As I continued to swallow the next spoonful, I realised how hungry I was and took quicker mouthfuls. It had dawned to me that I must have not eaten for a very, very long time. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days." Yuuko's brows furrowed and her lips pursed as she observed my reaction to her answer.

I sighed and took a few more mouthfuls of her delicious broth before continuing. "Where are the others?"

"Don't worry," she began as she clasped both her hands together. "They're all out on a training camp."

I felt a pain in my heart, as if I had did something terribly wrong. This training camp was meant for the four of them. Now, instead of being with her friends, Yuuko was here nursing me to health instead. It was a major failure on my part. This time, the continued deviation in the timeline was entirely my fault.

"What's wrong?"

I was at loss for words. I stared blankly at the broth and proceeded to finish it before handing the empty bowl back to Yuuko, avoiding eye contact as I did. "I'm sorry. Thanks for the meal though."

She tilted her head to one side, eyeing me curiously. "Why are you apologising to me?"

I sighed again and continued to avoid eye contact, staring blankly at my toes. "You should have been there with your friends. Instead, you're here wasting time on me." The fact of the matter is, _I_ could have been at the training camp with the group if all this hadn't happened. I could do with some intensive training of my own; if anything, my recent experience proved how physically unfit I was to survive in this world.

What I said seemed to elicit a chuckle out of Yuuko. "Is that what you're feeling so glum about?" She paused for a moment as her answer attracted my attention. "Don't think so lowly of yourself. You've been working hard to help us all, haven't you? You're concerned about Megumi and the others, and are worried if the newcomers have other ulterior motives in joining our group. I could see it the first time you tried to get Megumi away from Marie, and I can see that you and Iona have come to some sort of understanding concerning this matter."

I was genuinely surprised. My jaw could have just dropped and rolled off the bed.

"You should be getting your rest. Don't worry about the others; Iona is watching over them so please focus on getting better. We can discuss this again after everyone's back."

"Thanks. But there's just one more thing I need to ask."

"What is it? And what's wrong with your neck?"

I hadn't realised that I was unconsciously rubbing the side of my neck all this while. She was indeed quick to notice. "Who was it that found me and brought me back here, and was there anyone else with me at that time?"

Yuuko pursed her lips and leaned back onto the chair as she gave me question some thought. "Honestly, I was the last to reach you after Megumi and Hime, so I really can't answer your question. You need to wait for them to return from Iona's training camp first. There'll be time for questions and answers then. Now rest; your body needs to heal."

* * *

><p>I woke up the next morning, squinting to the blinding light that was shining through the window of my room. The morning breeze washed over me as I used my hands to cover my eyes. I tried to push myself up again, and to my surprise I could manage to sit up without too much pain this time.<p>

From the corner of my eye, I spied a figure sitting by my side. "Good morning, Yuu-"

I immediately recoiled, probably tearing a few abdominal muscles in the process when I realised that it wasn't Yuuko who was sitting beside me.

"What the hell did you think you were doing out there?" Marisu glared at me with her red and green eyes, looking like she was about to murder me in some utterly horrible and painful way. "What were you hoping to achieve, running around in the open like that?"

"I'm… I'm sorry." I don't really know why I was even apologising to her. It just felt natural, like a fleeting sense of _something_ that I couldn't really put together.

"You're sorry? I bet you're sorry! You're so sorry and so beaten up now, you might as well have just died out there!" Her chest heaved with each slow and laborious draw of breath, while her burning gaze never left me. "What am I supposed to do with you now?"

"I… I really don't know."

She took a step towards me, and I quickly shuffled back, only to realise that I still can't move properly, let alone budge and inch and get away if I needed to. "What are you planning to do?"

The door to my room creak open again. We both turned our attention to it. The familiar face of Yuuko peeked through. "Is everything alright?"

Marisu immediately got up and, without saying a word, calmly strode towards the window.

Yuuko, realising the presence of the intruder, barged into the room. Marisu nonchalantly hopped out of the window, changed into her Cure form and flew away before Yuuko could reach her. She rushed over to the window and looked outside. She was there for a moment, before reclining back in and shutting it tight, remembering to draw the curtains in tidily. "Are you alright? What did she want?"

"I'm alright. She just wanted to talk… I think." We lost eye contact again. I didn't know why I had to feel so inferior to her, as if I have let everyone down. But I remembered what she said yesterday, and that made me look up again. "Thanks for taking care of me, Omori-san."

She chuckled. "You don't have to be so formal around me."

"Right. Thanks, Yuuko. I really appreciate everything that you've done."

* * *

><p>Days passed by uneventfully. In fact, due to me being bedridden for the entirety, I completely lost track of time. My only clue that a significant amount of time had passed was the fact that everyone had returned from the training camp and taken the time to see how I was doing.<p>

I didn't manage to learn much about the battle. From what I had gathered, events had mostly gone ahead according to canon, with the glaring exception of Cure Fortune's encounter with Phantom. In this broken timeline, she had teamed up with Cure Crimson and beaten back Phantom without being lured into the Precure Graveyard. Shortly after that, Cure Lovely, Princess and Honey found me lying unconscious and alone by the broken bridge along the riverside. No one saw a thing and I was nowhere close to finding out who my assailant was.

It was late evening when a knock on the door interrupted my train of thought. Before I could answer, the door opened and a familiar face peeked through the opening, sending a chill down my spine. It was Marie. My heart raced; I couldn't tell what she had in mind. After all, she was the one who openly made the threat to my life back at Omori Gohan. If she was here to finish the deed, I probably wouldn't stand a chance against her superhuman physique.

"Here to finish the job?" I said, half-jokingly while straining to maintain a friendly smile as my mind raced with all sorts of scenarios and outcomes. To be blunt, none of the outcomes turned out to be in my favour.

She stared back with a deadpan expression. After a brief but highly uncomfortable moment of silence, she asked, "what job?"

"Oh, so you weren't the one who tried to kill me?" Kill me now, is what my brain must be screaming at myself. It was like taunting the lion in its own den.

"I see. Looks like you have your hands full." She was about to retreat out of the room, but popped her head back in. "Just a reminder, I have my eye on you."

Was that a threat? I can only assume so. I raised both hands in the air in defeat. "Look. At the state that I am in now, I can't lay a finger on a single thing, okay?"

"Fair enough." She slinked back out of the room, shutting the door behind her. I was left wondering what that was all about.

* * *

><p>I started waking up early and doing morning runs. Some people I knew from my past would have laughed; fortunately I was in a different world now and the people here – my friends – are supportive of this activity. At the very least, it helped me keep in shape after recovering from my injuries.<p>

Today, I had decided to try a different route. The usual route would have me run along the river. That is the usual route that Seiji and Yuuko would take. However, I wasn't interested in the familiar, downtrodden path this time. My earlier experience from Phantom's invasion taught me that I had to familiarise myself with the ins and outs town, so I intended to explore the place as an added experience while participating in my daily routine. Kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.

I picked up a couple of odd looks as I ran through some parts of town; who in the right mind runs in and out of alleyways during a morning jog, after all. I made a mental note to ignore them; you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, after all. In fact, I recognised a few landmarks as I jogged around town. I noticed some of the streets where I had ran past with complete abandon before, under the pursuit of rampaging Saiarks. I decided to turn into some of those alleyways, casually retracing my steps from the days before.

As I turned around what seemed like a familiar corner, something caught my eye that made me stop short and made my heart race. Two familiar individuals turned their heads in my direction — Marie and Miss Sugimoto. The sister and the cousin. I did not like the look on their faces when they recognised me.

"Umm… good morning…?" I waved. It was a feeble wave. More like a whimper of a wave. A poor excuse of a wave. My eyes quickly darted around, taking in my surroundings and noting anything of interest. Anything at all that I could employ in case anything untoward happened, such as violence, dismemberment or death.

"What are you doing here?" Marie continued to glare at me with murderous intent.

"I- isn't it rude to… umm… to spy?" Miss Sugimoto stammered, seemingly nervous yet somehow radiating an aura of intimidation and presence. How is that supposed to even work at all?

"Aah… I was just having my morning run, that's all." That's all true, of course. I wouldn't tell a lie to any lovely lady capable of effortlessly launching me a hundred feet up into the air now, would I? "Fancy meeting you two in a place like this, huh?"

Marie began taking steps in my direction, while Miss Sugimoto nervously inched forward behind her, using Marie as a shield. I can't decide if she's being so pathetic on purpose or if that's a real personality. I froze, curse those feeble legs of mine. My eyes continued darting around more agitatedly, searching for a way out to present itself. Before I realised it, the two of them were already at arm's length from me.

"Umm… a little personal space?" I kind of whimpered. Okay, "kind of" was an understatement. It definitely was a real and true whimper. There's not much else that an ordinary person could do when dangerous, super-powered magical girls were gunning after you with murder on their minds, after all.

"It seems that you are being worried about the wrong people," Marie said, her snarky face inches from my own.

I stared back at her, puzzled.

Miss Sugimoto peeked at me from behind Marie's shoulder. "I- I heard it from h-her," she said, her eyes indirectly gesturing towards Marie. "S-someone tried to… umm… kill you… d-during the Phantom attack?"

My eyes darted between the two. I had a good idea where they were going with this, but I wanted to hear it with their own words.

"In other words…" Marie leaned so close to me, I could almost kiss her. Not that it was the wisest thing to do, so I held back any such thoughts on the matter. "It. Wasn't. Us." She made sure to emphasise every single syllable. She placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle but sure shove, wheeling me around like a toy before sending me off, away from them. It was a most obvious hint that they wanted me to move along and get out of their way. I was in no position to argue, so I left and headed straight back.

* * *

><p>The Embassy was somewhat quiet when I got back. It was still the last few days of the summer holidays, so the girls shouldn't be at school now. I wandered into the kitchen and found it empty. So was the balcony and the front yard. Curious indeed.<p>

Finally I went back to the living room and gave the tall mirror that was propped up to the wall a light knock. I wasn't exactly sure if that's how you knock on the door to a god's private chambers, but it was pointless to think about the appropriateness of the method after the fact.

"Umm… Blue-sama… are you there?"

"How may I help you, Ken?" Blue's voice echoed from beyond the mirror, which began to glow in a pale light. I moved back to give Blue room to step out.

"Where's everyone?"

"They're in Hawaii, helping out fellow Pretty Cures against Saiark invaders."

Oh, right. That event happened, but it slipped my mind due to other thoughts that have been eating at me these past few days. I also realised that I must have missed that bit of drama between Hime and Seiji — another little canon event that's too late to worry about now. All that was left to do was to silently cursed my luck. In retrospect, that would have been quite a thing to witness first hand.

"Something seems to be on your mind." Blue eyed me curiously. "Would you like to talk about it?"

I considered his question. I had no idea how he would react if I decided to tell him the truth. On the other hand, he had within his chambers links to other worlds, connected by feelings, so he was at least not a stranger to parallel worlds and even possibly alternate realities. It could be worth a shot, or it could alienate me from one of the most powerful and influential beings in this particular world.

In the end, I chickened out. It was too big a subject to discuss. Instead, I decided to raise another pressing issue to Blue. "Say, Blue-sama… what do you think of the other three girls? Marisu, Marie and Mari." Wow, that was some kind of tongue twister indeed.

"You have a feeling of distrust towards them, I presume."

He was pretty accurate with his conclusion. "Something like that, I guess."

"They have not done anything wrong to earn my distrust," Blue said. I could see where this is going, and prepared myself. "They are Pretty Cure, and I love them all like everyone else in this world." Yep, that's typical ol' Blue-sama talking. He did have a point, though. The three of them were extremely careful with their demeanour around everyone else but me. At least Iona thought some of them seemed quite suspicious, while Yuuko still seemed to be on my side. Sudden appearances of lost siblings and distant cousins isn't something that happens so coincidentally, after all.

In the end, I decided to drop the subject and we continued to talk about small, useless things to pass the time. By evening, the girls had returned from their trip via magic mirror. They did not bring back any souvenirs though.

* * *

><p>The next day, I resumed my morning jog but this time stuck to the regular route. Better to be safe than sorry after yesterday's unpleasant encounter! It was a good day for a run, next to the calm and serene river that runs across Pikarigaoka. Despite the threat of invasion, the people here were genuinely <em>happy<em> and the amount of happiness energy, or whatever you may call it, could be strongly felt throughout the city.

I ended my run in front of Yuuko's lunch shop and went in for a bite. There were a few patrons having a late breakfast, but Yuuko herself wasn't around. However, I spied a familiar blue-haired girl sitting by herself in one corner so I went up to her said greeted her.

"Yo!"

Hime jumped, startled by my casual demeanour as she studied me with her blue eyes. "You scared me, you meanie!"

"I'm sorry," I said in jest. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Oh… stuff… waiting for Megumi and Yuu Yuu."

"I see. May I have a seat?" I glanced at one of the empty chairs at the table.

Seeing her nod, I made myself comfortable and motioned for a cup of coffee. This was followed by an awkward moment of silence, punctuated by the occasional feet-staring contest and random hair twirls. Feeling a little agitated that my coffee hasn't arrived yet, I _tried_ initiating small talk. Note the emphasis on tried.

"So, how are you getting along with your… _sister_?" I just had to do it. Who couldn't resist such a trope, emphasising _sister_ the way Darth Vader did during his confrontation with Luke in the Death Star? It was so appropriate for the situation that I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

Fortunately Hime did not get any of my pop culture reference shenanigans. She's not native to this world, after all. Come to think of it, I wasn't even sure if Star Wars was _a thing_ over in this world — not that it even mattered the slightest bit. "Oh, we're doing fine," she said while nervously throwing quick glances at the door. I guess she still hasn't fully warmed up to me yet.

"Look, if I'm making you feel uncomfortable, I'll leave. Okay?" I tried to casually say that, like it was nothing, just to put her at ease.

"No, no, it's nothing. Nothing at all." It wasn't very convincing at all, with her not making eye contact while saying that.

Time to switch tactics. "Thanks." Yep, the random thanks-out-of-nowhere strategy. It worked before, so why not?

She looked up, puzzled. "Eh?"

"I said thanks. Thank you for looking out for me when Phantom invaded. I know you didn't really do much for me in particular that day, but I can tell that you were still concerned when I got hurt. And I just wanted to thank you for it." That was the limit to the amount of spin that I could spew without choking on my own tongue. I just hoped that Hime didn't take my twitching eyebrow to mean anything more than just a twitchy little muscle at work.

"You're strange," she said at last. "But I guess you're alright. I'm just not used to talking to boys, that's all."

Finally, she had opening up a little, though it still felt a little odd. By this time in the canon timeline, she should have made a good number of friends and have become more comfortable around people like me already. But anyway, at least from here on we could get a bit of small talk going. It also helped that we were both considered foreigners as far as this world is concerned, so we something to relate. We traded questions, me asking about her home while she asked about mine. I didn't really have much to say about home though; compared to the fantastical Blue Sky Kingdom, real life was bland and boring. There were no monsters and no magical girls to fight them, after all.

Speaking of magical girls, I realised that I had digressed. I meant to ask Hime more about her _sister_, as part of my ongoing investigation. So I began with the simple, casual questions first. Like, "where is Marie now?"

"Oh, about. She seems to be getting along very well with Seiji's cousin, so the two of them must be out shopping or something."

"Shopping, huh?" A more observant and genre-savvy person would have detected the sarcasm in me.

"Yeah, the other day Marie-chan got this cute little phone tether for Megumi."

And so most of the conversation went around in this manner. I could tell that Marie, and probably Miss Sugimoto too, were very, very good at keeping their appearances up around the others. But I've seen the other side of them. I knew enough to be extremely wary of them both. I could almost feel like they were plotting something behind my back now. On the other hand, Marisu was still a big mystery. I've never seen the three of them together. In fact, if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say that Marisu was operating independently. I didn't know what she was after, which made her even more dangerous than the other two. Finally, there was the stalker girl, whom in reality could be any one of those three but I wasn't so sure.

"Hello, Earth to Ken."

I looked up and saw Megumi and Yuuko standing beside Hime. "Sorry… I got side-tracked," I said while sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck. "So, what are you girls planning on doing together today?"

"Shopping!" Megumi answered.

"Eating!" Yuuko said, almost in unison.

"Dressing up!" Hime added, contributing to the confusion.

"Eeeh?" the three of them exclaimed, looking at each other in surprise.

I managed to suppress a chuckle. "Well, I'll leave you girls to go about your girly things and I'll be heading back to The Embassy. See ya!"


	7. Of Monkeys and Wrenches

**Chapter 7: Of Monkeys and Wrenches**

Several days have passed since the summer vacation was over and it was the beginning of another school term for the Happiness Charge Pretty Cure team. Besides that, the girls have also begun to prepare for their school's upcoming Culture Festival.

Something felt off and has been bugging me since the day Phantom invaded Pikarigaoka, but I couldn't lay a finger on the specifics and it has been eating at me for an unhealthy amount of time, causing me to lose focus even while I was working at Omori Gohan. I nervously glanced over my shoulder to look out for Marie, out of habit, only to remember that she was no longer there. She had quit her job several days earlier and must probably be out and about, on some nefarious task or other. I haven't been able to check on any of the three girls outsiders nor seen the mysterious stalker recently, and that just made me worry more. I have been slacking and I knew it.

After work, I decided to spend some time at the park to clear my mind and think things through. I was going nowhere fast, while my enemies continued to plot. For all I know, they might have already been executing their master plan, and I would be the last to hear of it. However, I had no answers. Only more questions, and more doubts. I ruffled my hair in my hands, frustrated at my inability to do anything.

"Are you ready for what's to come?"

I nearly fell off the bench. Marisu was sitting beside me, giving me a kind of look that I didn't have time to decipher before I quickly averted my gaze to resume my hobby of feet-staring and grass counting.

"What's coming?" I asked, continuing to avoid eye contact.

I could hear a deep sigh from the girl beside me. She must have been frustrated for reasons I could not comprehend.

"If you're going to be this useless again, I guess I have to do everything on my own. Again."

She got up to leave, but out of some instinctive reaction I grabbed on to her sleeve again. "Wait!"

"What?" She tugged away with her hand, but not hard enough to dislodge my grasp as if she wasn't even really trying.

"You know a lot more than you are letting on. But you are being very tight-lipped about it. Why?"

This time she averted her gaze and stared out into the open space across the river. "Let go of me."

I relaxed my fingers a bit. "Why?"

She did not answer for a long time. She was staring into the sky, observing something up there in the wild, blue yonder. I tried to look but did not see anything out of ordinary.

"What is it?"

"He's early today." She reached into her pocket, pulling out the _PreChanMirror_ and preparing to transform. "You stay put and don't do anything stupid again."

Before I could ask any further, she had leapt skyward. Despite her warning, I still needed answers so curiosity as well as pride got the better of me. I took note of where she was heading and then made up my mind to go there myself the old fashioned way – with legs.

* * *

><p>It doesn't take much effort to track down a Pretty Cure in battle. Just follow the sounds of crashes and explosions, and go in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd and you're most likely to be on the right path. Like a moth drawn towards the light, I simply had to witness the battle in hopes of answering the many questions that I still lingered. I would occasionally see figures darting across the sky, but they moved so fast while I was too focused on the path ahead to recognise any of them. Soon, I came to a grassy clearing where the battle was taking place, and what I saw made me screech to a halt.<p>

The four main Cures Lovely, Princess, Honey and Fortune, together with Cure Crimson, were battling another female Cure. She was clad in red and black, looking almost like a mirror image of a darker Cure Lovely. If I wasn't so well-versed in this particular story, I would have been caught off guard by this spectacle, but I fully knew who they were fighting. This was a person who had the power to harness the very shadow of an opponent, turning their darkest selves against them. This was Phantom, the Precure Hunter, who had stolen Cure Lovely's shadow to transform himself into Cure Unlovely.

At that moment, I finally realised what was so wrong about everything up until now. That uncomfortable thing that had been nagging at me at the back of my mind all this while, that also related to the timeline being completely off, all boiled down to one single fact — the Precures aren't in peak form at all. Because of all the anomalies and deviations that have occurred, the four Cures have yet to obtain their next power up, the Happiness Big Bang. Without this special move, they shouldn't — or should I say wouldn't — be able to defeat Unlovely in their current state.

A nearby crash shook me out of my thoughts. Cure Princess had taken a hit and cratered the ground a short distance away. I ran up to her. "Are you alright?"

"Get back!" Princess yelled, holding out a hand at me. Phantom – or rather, Unlovely – was diving towards us like an eagle about to snatch its prey. I wanted to leap back, but at the same time my conscience demanded that I do not leave Cure Princess. Trapped in between a moment of indecision, I helplessly watched as Unlovely sped towards the both of us at breakneck speed. And then Cure Lovely slammed her shoulder into Unlovely, sending her tumbling away.

Cure Honey landed right beside me. "You should get to safety while you can."

"Honey is right," Cure Fortune said as she landed in front of me, holding out her hand in my direction while maintaining her gaze on the enemy. "It's too dangerous for you to be here."

I felt the burning gaze of Cure Crimson upon me from above; looking up at her just served to confirm my feelings. She was definitely mad at me for disobeying her order, and I've got no excuse for her. But she wasn't about to come down and admonish me. Instead, everyone immediately tensed up, raising their hands and slightly bending their knees in a defensive posture as Unlovely picked herself up and looked about menacingly, searching for the one who had struck her. Honey and Fortune immediately moved towards Cure Lovely; seeing this, Unlovely scanned her surroundings again and this time locked her sights on Cure Crimson above.

Ignoring the ongoing clash, I ran back towards the buildings, ducking behind some overturned carts. I continued to watch the battle unfold from behind cover. My eyes were all on Cure Crimson. On how she fought, how she anticipated Unlovely's attacks, and how she reacted. I needed to get a read on her if I was to judge her true agenda.

Crimson's attacks were very cautious and calculative. She would hold back, waiting for the other Cures to commence their attack. Even then, she would lurk by the sidelines, then dashing in to strike when an opening presented itself. She was like a textbook rogue class utilizing surprise and attacks of opportunity to the fullest. Despite this, Unlovely still presented a very formidable defence which never failed to repel Crimson's underhanded tactics. This played out like a covert cat and mouse game, while a more overt and brutal fight went on with the other four Cures.

The battle quickly took to the skies again, where Unlovely seemed to move quicker and react more fluidly up there while the rest of the girls struggled to keep up with their opponent's fast and unpredictable motions. Unlovely would duck aside from an attack and quickly recover to deliver a devastating response before her opponent could react. Lovely and Fortune, considered to be the more close combat-oriented girls of the group, were sent plummeting while Princess and Honey encircled their prey from the sidelines and tried to provide ranged support.

A barrage of magical bullets saturated the sky, courtesy of Princess' Bullet Machine Gun. Rather than dodging, Unlovely simply held out her hand and stopped whatever stray bolts came her way. Honey took advantage of this to lasso Unlovely's outstretched hand with magical ribbons, an attack christened Honey Ribbon Spiral. The tactic appeared to work and Honey proceeded to reel her opponent in, but Unlovely smirked at Honey's attempts and tugged back at the magical binds. In a short and brutally one-sided tug-of-war between the two girls, Unlovely unceremoniously turned Honey's attack against herself, slinging her towards the ground.

Before Unlovely had completed her slingshot maneuver on Honey, however, Crimson sped towards Unlovely with an outstretched fist. The blow struck below Unlovely's midsection, causing her to double over as she hurtled backwards from the momentum. Crimson continued pressing forward, throwing punches and kicks like a well-rehearsed kata. If this were a Street Fighter match, Crimson was probably cheating and taking advantage of an exploit to deliver an infinite hit combo on her opponent.

After one final roundhouse kick in mid-air, Unlovely was sent smashing onto the pavement, cratering it and the surrounding road in the process. By then, Lovely, Fortune and Honey had already recovered and made their way to the smoking crater while Hime continued circling it from above. Crimson, however, did not bother to wait and divebombed towards the crater with an extended and clenched fist at supersonic speeds. The resulting sonic boom could only be heard after she had hit the ground, causing yet another explosion that threw up a massive cloud of dust and debris.

Before the dust cloud had cleared away, I threw caution to the wind and rushed over to the crater. Fortune noticed my approach and held out her hand, cautioning me to be careful. I slowed down and and kept my distance, but still remained close enough to observe the situation unfold.

Crimson was on top of Unlovely, barely managing to pin her opponent down. They were struggling for something; Fortune quickly leapt in and gave a swift kick, sending a sword spinning harmlessly into the air. Lovely and Honey then proceeded to help restrain their opponent while Hime began to descend slowly.

Convinced that the coast was now clear, I crept forward and peered into the crater. Crimson and Fortune were holding their opponent down. It was no longer Cure Unlovely – she had reverted to Phantom again. Lovely and Honey were standing over the three of them, still in combat-ready stance. Phantom glared at everyone, still attempting to struggle.

"Give it up already," Crimson commanded as she struggled to keep him from moving. "You've lost. Now go run back and cry to your precious Mirage."

"How dare you speak of her in this manner!" Phantom raged like a wild beast.

"Phantom!" Fortune addressed him with a stern voice. "Where is my sister, Cure Tender?"

"You'll never see her again!" Phantom continued to be as defiant as ever.

Unperturbed by his response, Fortune pressed down on Phantom's chest and repeated herself. "Where is Cure Tender?"

"Let me go and I'll send you all to her — at the Precure Graveyard!" His eyes locked with Fortune as they both stared each other down with hateful gazes.

"You're a monster!" Fortune was clearly losing it as she raised her fist at Phantom.

"Fortune, he isn't going to talk!" Crimson interrupted. "Phantom's no use to you. If you want your sister back, you'll have to go after Queen Mirage."

Fortune stared at Crimson, her brows still narrowed in fury. Lovely and Honey both knelt down and laid a hand each of Fortune's shoulders. "She's right, Fortune," Honey said. "Throwing your anger at Phantom will not get your sister back."

Eventually, Fortune relented. Crimson grabbed Phantom by the collar and pulled him close. It seemed like it was her turn now.

"Phantom, what do you know about the monolith?"

My eyebrows twitched curiously. I've not heard that term before. What was Crimson after?

"I don't know what you're talking about," Phantom answered, his gaze now locked onto Crimson's.

I took a step forward. "Crimson, what is this monolith?"

"You should know," she replied without breaking her gaze. "After all-"

"Release Phantom at once!" a voice boomed overhead. We all looked up and saw the visage of a yellow-haired girl in a dark, tuxedo-like dress. She held a staff in one hand, topped in the shape of a crescent moon with a purple gem hovering between the two points of the moon. This was Queen Mirage herself, staring down on all of us through a large mirror that served as an inter-dimensional communications medium. She was still sitting at her throne, probably in the Blue Sky Kingdom, brandishing her staff towards us in a threatening manner.

Dark energies began to swirl around her staff. We scrambled to our feet as soon as we realised her intentions. What happened next, however, was a blur. Mirage unleashed a wave of dark energies in our direction, but Blue appeared out of nowhere, and without warning we found ourselves back in the living room of The Embassy. It took a while for it to click that Blue had in fact come to rescue us and teleported everyone out of harm's way. In any case, Cure Crimson had given us the slip again, for she was gone by the time everyone had recovered from the shock and panic.

I slumped over onto the closest sofa and gathered my thoughts. While the conclusion seemed like a victory, I couldn't help but wonder how badly the timeline had deviated. The way things were going, I worried if the four main Cures would be strong enough for the eventual endgame scenario.

I also noted the absence of both Marie and Miss Sugimoto throughout the entire ordeal. Curious.

* * *

><p>While everyone else was recuperating, I decided to go out and take a walk. I wanted to back to the riverside and think about what Crimson had asked Phantom, before we were interrupted. The sight of the serene river flowing through the city seemed to have a calming effect on me, so I thought that would be the best place to be.<p>

I had barely sat down for five minutes when Iona showed up and took a seat beside me. "Marisu seems to know you." She had an accusing look on her face.

"It seems so," I muttered. "But I don't know anything about her." After a brief pause, I decided to add, "is this the reason you are here?"

"To be blunt, yes." She crossed her arms and continued to look at me accusingly. "In fact, I'd go as far as say that the two of you are working together. Towards what goals I cannot say but this only serves to cast the shadow of doubt on you."

"I see. Well, you probably have every right to be suspicious. She has approached me casually a few times, acting as if we have something going on between us and that I have somehow absconded from a deal I don't remember making. As least that's the impression that I have gotten from the few interactions that I've had with her. I still don't know what her deal is, but I assure you that I am not actively 'working with her' as you say."

Iona seemed to be satisfied with my answer for the moment as she relaxed herself and slumped onto the bench to relax. "That was quite a fight, and I'm still not any closer to freeing my sister."

"Don't worry. You'll see her again eventually."

We both stared out at the river for a long time and watched the children and their family play alongside it in the park. It was as if the previous battle never even happened; everyone was still as carefree as ever, going about their daily lives despite a worldwide invasion from another dimension. I felt the serenity and the innocence of the situation a little comforting, after everything that had happened today.

"I don't know what to say, but at least I can acknowledge that you're not the enemy," Iona finally said before getting up on her feet. "We should hurry home. Yuuko's preparing dinner again tonight." Iona seemed pretty enthusiastic all of a sudden.

"What's the occasion?"

"I don't know," she replied. "But Megumi seemed pretty perky about dinner and wanted all of us to be there tonight."

I chuckled. The subject of food always lightens up the mood, especially when Yuuko is involved. "Yeah. Let's do that."

* * *

><p>Dinner was supposed to be a happy occasion, and one where I could just sit back and relax and enjoy a good meal – especially when it was Yuuko who was in charge of the kitchen. However, both Marie and Miss Sugimoto were present, and it wasn't just their presence that made me uncomfortable, but also their untowardly attitude as well.<p>

It wasn't just me though. Everyone around the table also seemed to be uncomfortable with Marie being overbearing on Megumi, and how Miss Sugimoto was sitting too close to Blue. To be frank, the entire situation at the table was extremely awkward and everyone hurriedly finished their meals in silence. When everyone was nearly done with their food, Megumi stood up and said, "everyone, I have something to announce."

Five minutes later, everyone had gathered around at the living room. Almost everyone had their jaw dropped as if they had just seen a ghost.

"What do you mean, you and Marie are dating?" Hime was obviously distressed, ruffling up her hair as the words sank in.

"I… I didn't know you swung that way," Iona stammered.

I looked to Blue, hoping to at least get some kind of logical or authorial response out of him, but he just smiled approvingly at the pair. It was not just his acceptance that bothered me, but Miss Sugimoto was also snuggling up to him, clutching at his left arm like a little kitten. If I were to let my instincts take control of my mouth this very moment, I would have run out of expletives before you could even speak the words "Mississippi."

On second thought, perhaps my mind had really broken this time. "What the hell?"

I unintentionally managed to get everyone's attention. "What the hell is this? None of this is not supposed to happen at all! Everything up to now is completely wrong! The whole timeline is all fucked up, and you haven't even unlocked Axia's Shining Make Dresser or your Innocent Forms yet! What the hell is this shit?"

"Ken… calm down," Iona said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"No!" I shook my head and brushed her hand off. "No, I can't calm down. Not with everything like this! I can't even begin to fathom just how screwed up everything single thing is! You-" I pointed an accusing finger at Marie. "You-" This was at Miss Sugimoto. "Marisu! And me! We're not supposed to even be here! We don't belong here, yet here we are fucking around the place like some kind of a sick joke!"

Iona kept her head down, while Yuuko stood up and approached me, offering something in her hand. "Please, Ken, try and calm down. Here, have a honey candy."

Before I could answer her, Marie began to weep. "I… I get it. You… you're jealous of us… aren't you… Ken?" she accused, her sobbing getting more and more intense. And annoying too, mind you. Is that how she intended to play it?

"We… we just wanted… everyone to be… happy…" Miss Sugimoto began playing the crying game as well, smothering her face in Blue's chest. He patted her on her head to comfort her, making me feel sick in the gut.

"Hold on just a minute, you two…" Iona stood by my side, addressing the two sad excuses for Precures. "Nobody said anything about-"

"Who's side are you on?" Hime yelled. "Can't my sister just be happy with Megumi? Can't Seiji's cousin be happy with Blue? Are you trying to ruin everyone's happiness?"

Iona and I just stared and blinked, shocked at Hime's outburst. We have not ever seen her like that before. In fact, Hime was the last person in this group that I would have expected to react like this. Yuuko seemed to be at loss for words and just stared helplessly at everyone, her eyes wide open in surprise. This whole situation had just made a turn to the worst, and I may have been the culprit. I have effectively divided the Happiness Charge Pretty Cure team, and I have only myself to blame for it. What was that about me not being able to do anything earlier? Yep, that's me sucking like a useless, sad excuse for a human being.

"I give up." I threw both my arms up in the air. "I give up. You can have your petty romance and your petty, sad excuse for a timeline all for your petty little selves. I'm done here."

I stormed up the stairs and headed straight into my room, leaving everyone in a state of shock. I didn't have the time nor interest to bother noticing the hidden smirks on Marie and Miss Sugimoto's faces.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: You know that episode from Samurai Flamenco where everything goes ape? Well, this here is where things start to go bananas. No monkeying around here.


End file.
